What was the very best part of Jari Osborne’s PBS beaver documentary? Lots of people will say the Timber story, and that story was certainly very touching and a wonderful way to learn about family groups. But there was another, better part that made all the ranchers and property owners pay attention in a way they never had before. And it was this:
Well I heard from Carol Evans this weekend because busy beaver author Ben Goldfarb had just made his way to Nevada. And she took him out to nearby Maggie creek to show him what it looks like now. Are you sitting down? Because this is the ONLY story we should need to tell about beavers. Ever.
I keep looking at this over and over. At the contrast with the dry desert background. It looks like the garden of Eden. Or better yet like someplace Moses lead the Jews out of the wilderness. It’s beautiful, and it was all done by beavers.
Speaking of water, a wonderful donation arrived from our fluvial professor friend Dr. Ellen Wohl at Colorado State. She has been persistently interested in the effects of beaver on creeks and rivers, and I’m a great admirer of her ability to speak about their influence without sounding like a beaver-hugger but as a brilliant woman who understands water systems better than anyone else. Ellen’s book Discontinued Rivers was published by Yale University Press and is described as